Social Security has confirmed that it will include 11 new pathologies that will allow affected workers to access early retirement due to disability and advance their ordinary age to 56 years, without applying early cuts to the pension. The ministry led by Elma Saiz has confirmed this right, thus expanding the list of diseases that are already included in the annex to Royal Decree 1851/2009, updated by Royal Decree 370/2023, which regulates the reduction of the retirement age in these cases.
To access this type of retirement, the norm requires a recognized degree of disability equal to or greater than 45%. In addition, it is necessary to have contributed for at least 15 years throughout one’s entire working life, of which at least five must have been under this degree of disability equal to or greater than 45%, which must have been officially recognized and caused by one of the pathologies contemplated in the regulations. That is, those that already existed and now with these new diseases that are going to be included.
These would be the pathologies that currently had a reduction in the ordinary retirement age:
a) Intellectual disability
b) Cerebral palsy
c) Genetic anomalies
- Down syndrome
- Prader Willi syndrome
- Fragile X syndrome
- Osteogenesis imperfecta
- Achondroplasia
- Cystic fibrosis
- Wilson’s disease
d) Autism spectrum disorders
e) Congenital anomalies secondary to thalidomide
f) Sequelae of polio or post-polio syndrome
g) Brain damage (acquired)
- Head trauma
- Sequelae of CNS tumors, infections or poisoning
h) Mental illness
- Schizophrenia
- Bipolar disorder
i) Neurological disease
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- multiple sclerosis
- Leukodystrophies
- Tourette syndrome
- Traumatic spinal cord injury
And these would be the 11 new diseases that Social Security will include in the Annex:
- spina bifida
- Variant transthyretin amyloidosis
- Parkinson’s
- Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (Steinert)
- Huntington’s disease
- Chronic kidney disease stage 5
- Systemic sclerosis
- spinal cord injury
- Corticobasal degeneration
- multiple system atrophy
- Progressive supranuclear palsy
How is the retirement age reduced?
In early retirement due to disability, it is worth mentioning that there are two ways, which do not work the same nor do they have the same minimum age. On the one hand, there is the modality for people with disabilities equal to or greater than 45%, linked to a specific list of pathologies. On the other hand, there is early retirement for those prove a disability equal to or greater than 65%which is calculated using reducing coefficients and can reach, as a limit, 52 years.
In the case of disability equal to or greater than 45%, the minimum age is 56 years and is not progressive through a coefficient, as is the case with 52 years for those with a degree of disability equal to or greater than 65%.
In this, a coefficient of 0.25 is applied for each year worked under these conditions and, if the person proves the need for third-party help for the essential acts of life, the coefficient can be 0.50. Of course, although the result of the calculation allows retirement to be brought forward, the regulations establish 52 years as the limit, that is, it cannot be lowered further. To understand it, 52 years old belong to this second modality (that of 65%), and not to that of 56 years old (that of 45%).
In both modalities, early retirement due to disability does not apply cuts for anticipating, as occurs in other early retirements. The pension is calculated using general rules, taking into account the regulatory base and the percentage based on the years of contributions. Furthermore, the time in which the retirement age has been advanced is considered to be contributed for the purposes of determining the percentage applicable on the regulatory basis, so that the advancement does not prejudice the final amount of the recognized right.
How will the procedure work?
The expansion of the list is not automatic. As explained by the Ministry, the General Directorate of Social Security Planning (DGOSS) has been in charge of carrying out the previous technical process and “has completed the procedure for including new pathologies that generate disability”, a work that allows “updating and expanding an open legal annex” incorporating diseases whose severity and effects can justify the advancement of the retirement age in people with a disability of at least 45%.
To this end, the DGOSS “has chaired a Technical Commission” made up of medical specialists, scientists and disability experts, with the participation of organizations such as the Carlos III Health Institute, the Forensic Medical Council, the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine, the INSS, the IMSERSO and the National Disability Council. This commission is the one that studies the applications and prepares pathology reports, and from this work “favorable resolutions have resulted” for the 11 new diseases announced. In the standard, this design seeks to ensure an objective and evidence-based criterion, since the proposal of new pathologies corresponds to a technical commission with medical and scientific participation.
The decisive step comes later. Social Security explains that access to early retirement will be activated “once the Government modifies the Annex to the aforementioned royal decree” (the one we have cited above). Only after this modification will workers affected by these pathologies be able to advance their retirement age up to 56 years, without a pension cut, as long as they meet the requirements for registration or similar status and prove the required minimum contribution periods.